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National Library's role is to collect, not censor

National Library's role is to collect, not censor

29 August 2011

It is not the role of the National Library of Australia, nor indeed libraries in general, to censor or endorse the contents of their collections,’ the Director-General Ms Anne-Marie Schwirtlich said today.

‘Rather, it is our role to collect, preserve and document this nation’s social history today and into the future,’ she said.

Ms Schwirtlich was commenting on media reports about the National Library’s inclusion of a Melbourne graffiti website on its Pandora digital archive. The site was included in Pandora by the State Library of Victoria. It has been archived on Pandora since 2003.

‘This particular site was selected because it documents aspects of urban culture,’ Ms Schwirtlich said. ‘The role of Pandora is to selectively preserve a wide range of websites.

‘Specialised sites are selected by our colleagues around the country and accepted into the National Library’s Pandora website for those reasons.’